a proposed new law banning u.s. citizens from adopting russian children gets a second reading in details just ahead. president barack obama backs the renewal of a ban on assault weapons in the u.s. the massacre of twenty children. six months. is a christmas message his personal. come.

on screen and now in h.d. international news and comment live from moscow this is r.t. president barack obama has made a move toward stronger gun control in the u.s. he voiced support for an initiative to renew an expired ban on assault weapons and the creation of a new law to tighten gun sales regulations the proposal comes after the mass shooting at the sandy hook elementary school that took the lives of twenty six people including twenty children. has the details. when you consider the tragic events that unfolded at an elementary school last week in the us it is not surprising that finally u.s. president barack obama is taking a position that would reinstate a ban on assault weapons in america now the last federal assault weapons ban which expired in two thousand and four prohibited the manufacturing of eighteen specific

models of semiautomatic weapons along with the manufacturing of high capacity ammunition magazines that could carry more than ten rounds now according to white house spokesman jay carney obama would also support legislation that closes a so-called gun show loophole that has allowed some weapons to be sold without criminal background checks but the buyers since obama has been president for mass shootings have taken place but until now critics say that obama has skirted the issue of federal gun control last week's massacre at that elementary school in newtown connecticut claimed the lives of twenty innocent children ages between six and seven and also six staff members were killed in the gun control advocates say it's a shame so many lives have been lost before u.s. leaders finally got the ball rolling on legislation in real largest firearms maker in the u.s. also announced on tuesday that it's being put up for sale by its owner freedom

group international is the maker of the bushmaster rifles the weapons thought to have been used in friday's connecticut massacre shares in publicly traded gun makers have been dropping for a third straight day there's also been reports of a large spike in gun sales in recent days because many believe that the federal government will in fact enforce stricter gun control. well we would like to know what you think could be done to reduce the number of deadly shootings in the u.s. you can logon to our website it's online all the time r.t. dot com to take part in our latest poll and so far we can see there on screen there's a time between those who think that the media should be forbidden to overhype the massacres and those who believe that the second amendment would prevent any measures to control the guns a few of you claim harsh new gun laws and restrictions could help curb the problem and the minority puts faith in the increase of security in public places go online and have your say. russia's state duma is

in the second reading of a bill which if passed will prevent u.s. citizens from adopting children from the country the action is said to be part of moscow's response to washington applying sanctions against a list of russians as part of the so-called magnitsky act. the russian state duma. just to remind us that a game of these give us a russian lawyer who suspected of large scale tax evasion he died in prison before a court could make a decision on his case he's seen by many in the west especially in the u.s. as a victim to various human rights violations in russia and recently america lawmakers passed to the so-called magnitsky act which allow sanctioning russian officials suspected in the us of being connected to human rights violations in russia in moscow by many of the shells this law is seen as anti russian and a legislator syrian the state duma have been working on what they say will be a proportionate response and besides sanctioning american citizens for thought to

be connected with violations of the rights of russian citizens many deputies are pushing for the draft to also include a ban for american citizens to adopt russian children adoption has become quite a heavy issue in the relations between moscow and washington due to the so many cases of abuse and sometimes even deaths like the story of twenty one month old jim yackety of russian boy who was adopted by an american couple and he died after is the adoptive father left in a locked car on a hot day or another case when an american adoptive mother put her child on a plane back to russia caring only north and underwear with him all this is causing outrage here in russia but not only that he says themselves but also a lack of a proper reaction from american authorities to preventing people from reoccurring including the lack of heavy jail sentences this draft has become

a source of heated debate both in the public and among the political elite a russian lawmakers have shown to be quite emotional on this issue when it comes to the executive power we've just heard from the president's spokesman tommy vietor piscopo said that it's understood why the deputies are being so emotional due to the evidence and the russian rhetoric coming from some members of the. international community but at the same time he said that the kremlin has a more reserved approach in the meantime it's clear that everybody understands all those responsible for the violation of human rights or especially children's rights have to be punished but it is causing debate whether or not a general ban on adoption by americans should be introduced. the foreign minister has also spoken against introducing this ban so the debate continues especially here in the state duma as a russian lawmakers continue reviewing the draft he has already announced his

intentions to run for parliament but what else is on his agenda for twenty thirteen company could do an embassy in london for six months so far the top whistleblower is set to deliver a christmas message plans for the year ahead as r.t. sarah first reports. it's been six months to the day since julian a son's thought refuge behind the doors of the ecuadorian embassy it was a bid to avoid extradition to sweden where he's wanted for sexual assault allegations that he continues to refuse to travel to sweden because if it will be extradited to the u.s. america investigating the wiki leaks website for publishing documents including dossiers on the wars in iraq and afghanistan now despite having twenty four hour round the clock police protection it's been a busy six months that julian assange and we've had him publish a book we've seen concerns over his health we seem to live in

a sound addressing world leaders as well as giving a number of personal exclusive interviews to say and of course we've had the ongoing protests and vigils in support of both julian assange and the wiki leaks website and in the next couple of days julian assange is expected to give a christmas address normally the territory of monaco but in this case julian assange will be summing up his. finding his plans for the year ahead now what is set to come remains relatively unknown we see in the dramas on folding over the last six months so you can be pretty sure it will be unpredictable it's a lot of rumors a lot of talk at the moment that we could see in twenty thirty julian assange is running for the australian senate and forming his own wiki leaks political party although it will be the next steps and of course r.t. is going to be there every step of the way taking you through this ongoing story.

purrs for. stepping stone as people protest against growing cuts and eight disintegrating economy the details are just ahead here on altie. and also those already lost all three spacemen but a fond farewell to their families and gear up for a five month trip to the stars the latest addition to the space station a set for liftoff from kazakhstan as bush oh you shortly here. on the edge of human capabilities. struggling with pain and grief. to become the first. for. fall in.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you know. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. choose your language. because we can we know if you. choose to use the consensus here to. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose the stories that impact your life choose the access to. wealthy british style holds. the title.

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would be so much brighter. from finest impression. totty dot com. if you just joined us of our will malcolm this is all t. live in moscow the news continues now let's go says it's doing everything possible to bring about the release of two russians kidnapped in syria on monday that being

held for ransom by suspected rebels who also seized an attendance citizen another hostage a ukrainian general this remains in medicine hands with a deadline passing a fifty million dollars price tag for her life meanwhile a news crew working for a u.s. channel has escaped after several days in captivity this comes as fighting intensifies across the country in the capital damascus rebels a locked in battles with palestinian militias who support the syrian government but some deserve as blame the violence on foreign meddling. terrorist groups. means for financing such as true a park in latin america that's true. terrorist groups so that in many other offices . they are having tension that financing as always they are terrorists or. the enemy is that syria had been divided into many pieces so you won't have a syrian anymore you are out there is where you have a kurdish. forces and you will have other sections and then you will have all these

opposition members fighting against each other particular all i mean you know the muslim brotherhood. paid around the world all wanting to impose their own totalitarian system on what's left of the of serial ratings agencies ten of them poor as is raise the credit rating of greece's sovereign debt this comes just hours before a planned twenty four hour nationwide strike as people continue venting their frustration at biting counts a monday athens received a fresh trying to bone up funds from the e.u. and the international monetary fund however as one expert says despite the much anticipated cash the greek economy is far from salvation. the fact that the ratings agencies gave us higher rating to the green bombs and yet there's going to be a strike if you get what's happened to that right now the international community be i asked the e.c.b. and you see have two wars austerity which makes investors happy but of course makes

the people angry and so you can see this strike going on and people a lot of people getting very upset in greece while the investor community is relatively happy because you know there is more greater safeguards that their money is going to be returned to them in the form of bonds so i think that you bear. the greeks even money this crisis is far from over we never solve the basic problem for me in present the europeans have yet to solve the basic problem that the european peripheral countries are insolvent based simply do not have the money to pay back all the money that they have borrowed and because of that fact which is

incontrovertibly we are going to come to a day of reckoning of some point the issue becomes when is that day going to happen and how far will the european bureaucrats be able to kick the can down the road and independent panel thomas with investigating september's deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi has revealed that. state department were behind the security breaches the mission the assault claimed the lives of the american ambassador to libya and three other u.s. officials it happened as violent demonstrations over an anti islamic film made in america began sweeping across the arab world initially it was believed the attack had developed out of a similar protest over this report suggests the incident wasn't preceded by any protests it appears to be a terrorist attack as early intelligence information claimed. a french court has refused to drop charges against dominique strauss the former international monetary fund chief allegedly took part in a luxury sex parties with prostitutes which the defense denies. the authorities are

trying to criminalize last it's the last inquiry against the sixty three year old who's already fought off several sex crimes charges. with medical checkups and final training behind them the latest members of the international space station crew are ready to head for the stars temperatures in kazakhstan have dropped to minus thirty degrees celsius and several preflight traditions have had to be cancelled but the team hopes music will keep things on a high note as tom reports. a farewell and guitar music was in the air was the next cruise the international space station said that last goodbyes to. it will be in the cockpit too says the i assesses next commander chris hadfield and actually when we're sitting on the launch pad inside our soyuz there will be music playing both to to warm up our bodies and to warm our hearts

while the music will be a comfort there was months of work ahead on the station preparing a launch is like a technical and scientific symphony no rocket crew and an all history of engineers around them chewing up for the main overture. for the families this time is as nerve wracking as it is exciting chris hadfield's wife say she'll still feel connected to him was up there again through music but like really if you're here if you'd like to be playing so much music because we had to get it to that part of it life and then it worked right and it was a life so they were sure that neil played lots of me you know this is a thing yes there's a spec or normally i assess for a trusty guitar. but being away from home at the most special time christmas surely that is hard to come when i'm up in space i start to feel homesick i'll probably do what i do want and that is to. to open up

my guitar and. play songs that are important to me we shouldn't feel too sorry for chris thomas as well as enjoying music you know be able to look down on her as we celebrate so it's seasons greetings from last week sounding spacemen merry christmas. happy new year. tom watson r t baikonur. and we'll be broadcasting the launch live here on r.t. and also online so the lift off at twelve minutes past. e.m.t. and you can learn more about the mission on our website at r.t. dot com. also it's revealed that the british spent over one hundred thirty million pounds a year on phone calls to find out how much tax they have to pay. thousands of marched on the presidential palace in cairo egypt opposition continues

to protest against the proposed constitution which is backed by the president and the muslim brotherhood the document has been criticized for being a virtually islamist which many fear could limit people's social freedoms whether the draft will prevail is being decided in a two stage referendum which kicked off last saturday and the results show most egyptians had voted in favor of the new constitution but opponents claim the poll was tainted by mass irregularities the country's justice minister has ordered an investigation into allegations of widespread vote rigging political analyst believes the ongoing division over the constitution is only deepening the cracks in egyptian society. there is a very strong division within egypt today between in egypt sions who are more of a group of egyptians that are more than two words in islamic system a predominant islamic religious hardline system in egypt and another group that it has also a lot of supporters in egypt that once you have a democratic or more of

a secular egypt well president morsi is saying that he is presenting a democracy that he wants to lead the country and he wants to lead that evolution towards a more democratic system but his actions so far have not proven to be in compliance with the well it's leading to more tension you had a lot of violence in the past week industries clashes and the three to a country's economy is now thinking are full it is getting poorer and poorer the whole system is collapsing the government the public administration the infrastructure of the country is really suffering from a shortage a shortage or at the the violence is spreading to other parts of the country and i think that this shows that that mr morsi and his associates do not have the potential to provide the stability that is needed and on the other hand they do not answer the aspiration of the groups of people who would talk to the thieves in the

past and who are able to overthrow the previous regime so he's acting in a way that is very similar to the previous regime in fact. well that's where it is for the moment here naughty the news continues with the news team in about forty minutes from now in the meantime join us for trip to the russian city of sochi as it prepares to host the twenty fourteen winter and thinks that coming your way visually. remains a mystery even for specialists how a voice can produce several sounds it wants to do the means the art of throat singing comes naturally picked up like a language. a

language of communicating with nature it said that's where throat singing originates from the unions believe not only animals but also all surrounding objects like reverse forests and even stones souls imitating the sounds they believe assumes to capture the power of nature. was. there are special instruments that accompany the singing if gainey says there is even a legend about his instrument a gill it says once there lived a poor shefford who had the best horse that won every competition but jealous people killed that horse was revived as an instrument. or was it of subtle is because of the spirit of the horse coming to his dream he said make an instrument from a tree the sounding board from the leather of my face the strings. and to remember

me make an engraving of my head part of the instrument he did so i called the instrument again. you which means come back and this melody on the instrument is called. to fly as one of the most famous groups in the republic their next goal is to tour peru and they say for you or peons it's difficult to pick up and sing so i ask them to teach me and see if i can do it. cheerily the senior. chen oh you shared their order that was sure to say can out who was to thank gary r o. but now it is the and moody part of the song and not the actual throat singing which i wouldn't

even dare try to repeat. so maybe you have to be born here to be able to sing like this i thought so until i met she looks like it to vini and i don't even speak their language but she is from japan. most s. to foreign mind so that you come from two hundred years ago and feel so happy here she's not planning a professional singing career she keeps practicing just because it's become part of her nature. since childhood footy america has always stood out from his peers he hates losing and has never missed a single training session he came first in everything swimming ballroom dancing or

chess at the age of sixteen started to lift weights four years later he took on the bronze medal in weightlifting from the london paralympics. coming in third place at the olympic games was his first serious defeat. in your bones when the bronze medal for me was poor consolation because when you know that you really could do better that you could show a much better result of course that upsets you but i'm only twenty two for this week those were my first paralympic games so the result was a good start and i must keep up this level and move forward to go. for the i was born with a spinal injury when his mother was leaving the hospital they told her she had to do some special massages and he would be able to walk to help her son the dish to

become a coach and adapted physical education every day they did special exercises hoping for a miracle however the boy could never stand on this feet to walk. it was very difficult i had stupid thoughts in my head when i were at a hospital with them i even thought of jumping out the window with my son ivan wished he was mentally handicapped so he would not understand that he could not walk but my husband told me i think about what you're saying do you think you'll feel any better do you think you'll feel any better. this is so we accepted the sad truth and began to fight. my grandfather saw it on t.v. . the vehicle powered by the arts and by it's a really special vehicle for people with leg disabilities. they used to write it very often and he drove it literally everywhere but. he used his homemade hand bike to go to a regular school in russia children with disabilities receive home schooling as

a rule but for his parents it was a question of principle simply did not consider himself to be disabled. in the world there are three steps going into the school building about half a metre away and once he fell over. and after that the headmaster wanted us to take him in else all the time but i said no it's no big deal if a child falls down happens to everyone when they're kids when you bought them because you and we made him go outside for a walk when he was driving his hand bike his knees were shaking because of the atmosphere around him but i shouldn't he saw that people looked at him and it made him very tense but for the mayor was elected class president after lessons were over he never had a minute to spare he went swimming played the guitar took the wheelchair dancing lessons and lived in wait he traveled a lot taking part in numerous performances in competition. is cuba because you know

. you. play the most father was his personal driver and bodyguard after leaving his job he adjusted his schedule to his son's timetable however he's never made concessions to his son's condition. you won't be able to get through we will. but i want to show the apartment to my son we're definitely going out. of the war if you want to achieve something you have to go all the way there's nothing you can do in this life. to remove this wall you'll still be under-floor heating here are you going to door into the kitchen. where you can move the balls any way we like. we need to redesign. most russian cities especially the olympic host city of sochi are in need of disabled access.